40th Story Regrets
by dayotachan413
Summary: my prompt: your hero/heroine jumps off a very tall building, but by the 40th story they get a call/text, and once they see who it is they immediately regret jumping. I made it into a spin-off of Romeo & Juliet. Please give advice for writing! Dialogs are hard! I: Rated T for alcohol and DEATH.


Kalliope R. Smid

10-15-14

Jacob Asbell

40th Story Regrets

The sky is rich and dark, bringing out the yellow headlights and street lamps. The ghost of the sunken sun haunts the edges of the horizon and hugs the sharp corners of the buildings, as if to keep the memory of warmth and light fresh in the minds of the people in the streets. The moon in its full glory, with the glare of the city lights, strips the children of the privilege of the stars. A chill runs through his spine once again. He senses not the warmth of the lights, but the dread and cold and loneliness of the open air.

A melancholy boy of just seventeen stands precariously close to the edge of a colossal building, more than one hundred stories tall. In one hand is a beer bottle with only half left inside; in the other is a photo of the boy, alongside a girl. They are smiling and holding hands. He looks up as a gust of wind rustles his hair, and it nabs the photo from his hand. He doesn't try to catch it. She is long gone in this world, but he will soon be with her once again.

The wind feels cool on his face, and he sighs. He looks down on the city with a look of anguish and sorrow. One that shouldn't be worn by a child like him. He takes a sip from his bottle, and then places it on the ground beside him.

"My lover is dead; I have no reason to be alive," he says, with words sounding as though they had been scripted, "I would rather be dead than in a world without my Juliet,"

Without another word, Romeo stepped up to the very edge so that he was only being supported by his heels on the concrete, leaned forward and felt himself sink gently into the void of night.

All sounds stop. Everything is just a blur of blue and black. His head spins while his stomach dances. Everything hurts all at once; yet everything feels numb. He cries out in pain, tears streaming down his face. He releases a single uncontrollable, heart retching sob as he is thrown downward by the forces of gravity.

Suddenly all of the spinning stops. He is relieved of all regret and sadness he once felt with a single breath. He feels like laughing, but can't do anything. His mind is blank. He feels his phone in his pocket and pulls it out. It's ringing. Romeo takes one look at the contact and a sharp pain stabs him in the chest.

"No," he thinks, bringing the speaker of the phone to his ear, "this can't be happening."

"Romeo!" He instantly recognized the voice on the other end, "It's me, Juliet! I'm not dead! I faked my death to be with you!"

He never heard the rest. His fingers, along with the rest of his body went limp as he was possessed with the daunting realization and imminent doom of the moment. The phone stays with Romeo, and then slowly drifts up into the darkness of the night. Looking up, he sees the last of Juliet he had slowly get smaller and smaller.

He suddenly senses the warmth of the yellow-orange street lamps, and for an instant Romeo thinks he sees the stars peek from behind the curtain they are always behind. In a blink of an eye there are white lights sprinkled across the velvet fabric that is drunk in blue.

Silent tears roll off Romeo's cheek and up into the lights of the sky. As he cries he wonders if the night sky would ever be as beautiful and lonely if it weren't for Juliet. He suddenly wants her to see the stars as he is, in all its beauty. Everything suddenly surrounds him. The moment was meant to seem like forever. A sickening thud that feels like nothing, impossible to feel, sounds. There is abrupt nothingness for Romeo.

A broken girl stands alone on a roof of a building. She throws a empty beer can into the city in frustration. She pulls out a photo. She clutches it, and her knees give out and she dissolves into a puddle of tears. Her head throbs. She looks up, with her whole body shaking in sobs. She sees through tears, the night sky.

She sits up and gasps, then chokes. She coughs twice, then looks up again to see stars being thrown onto the sky like a canvas. They cluster and twinkle, in all variety of colors and sizes.

The young girl cannot move. She stays in her trance for quite some time, fixated on the glowing orbs in fascination. They all seem so lonely, yet they are clearly beside each other.

Juliet falls asleep on the roof.

She never jumps.


End file.
